My father always told me, "Learn a trade because if your primary career of choice fails because of a bad economy or for whatever reason, you'll always have your trade to fall back on if you need to."
Wise words if you ask me.
What trade do I wished I'd learned and may still learn someday you ask?
Well...
I've had this weird fascination for the past several years of learning butchery.
I've always thought it would be cool to be able to take an entire dead animal such as a cow or a lamb or whatever...to know every part of it and to be able to butcher it into fine edible and even salable portions.
I have no idea why I have this desire to learn what some view as a morbid thing.
To me it isn't morbid...it's a skill.
To me it's cool and I can't explain why.
Animal blood doesn't bother me.
Now as for the slaughter of live animals, NO WAY!
I won't be a part of that.
I'm just interested in cutting them up AFTER they're dead.
What trade have you always wanted to learn but haven't yet & why?
Or HAVE you learned your particular trade?
Post Edited (02-12-04 19:12)
If you could butcher them with the shards of a freshly-squeezed lightbulb, you could make millons.
Nothing wrong with being a butcher. I know a few people in the meat business, and they're all especially community-minded people - volunteer fireman, township councillor, fundraiser. Not what most people would expect from a guy who cuts up dead animals.
I really wish I'd been an electrician. That was my plan through most of high school. I've always messed around with electronics and electricity (melted my share of plyers as a kid), and I've been doing household wiring projects for my parents and myself since I was about 15.
I had a friend in high school whose father was an electrician, and he never had any question of what he wanted to do. We were both going to be electricians. So, he became an apprentice after graduation, while I went full-time in my job at the newspaper (bird in the hand) and eventually went into journalism. I did test for the police department at one point (father, brother and brother-in-law are cops), but that never went anywhere.
My buddy, meanwhile, owned a house before he even had his ticket, took vacations to warm places, and always had the nice car, bike and snowmobile. He went into business for himself a couple of years ago, and paid off his house within the first year.
I don't even want to tell you what a reporter makes.
Weirder still, another friend of mine, who never knew a thing about electricity, just got hired as an apprentice at age 32 (he'd been in the army). He just decided that's what he wanted to do, sent out resumes and had the job within about a week - no problem. I could have done that.
I'm pretty tempted, let me tell you. Wonder what my wife would say?
I always wanted to be a SWAT sniper...
An electrician is something I could never be.
Fooling around with wires and poking around conduits & sockets scares the hell out of me.
Even if I were properly trained it would bother me knowing that I could possibly DIE doing my job!
I've never had any aptitude for working with my hands so most of the trades are out for me.
What I do wish is that I'd majored in something a little more marketable in college, though....I'm going to have to go back to school pretty soon just so I can get a job that requires more than a HS diploma.
My girlfriend's dad is an electrician. I don't ever want to have a job on the books. Union jobs suck unless you're in a fixed position like a factory or something. When he works, he has plenty of money, but last year he went for almost 9 months before the booking place got him another job. f**k that. Give me a real job where I know I can show up the next morning and still work there.
I would, however, love to learn blacksmithing. Be able to make swords and stuff like that. Or perhaps mekume gana (I probably spelled that wrong), which is the way samurai swords were made.
Brother R
I guess I'd like to learn how to brew beer...that would be good.
My fraternity brothers were fond of saying that I was a storehouse of useless movie knowledge and if I just learned to apply myself I could find a cure for cancer.
Maybe I should have done that - then my sister would still be here.
Sorry about the morbid thought; but I was a pallbearer yesterday for my wife's aunt, who just passed from liver cancer.
Man, these last couple of months have really been a b***h....
Am I the only person who thinks that we could've wiped cancer out years ago, but all of our medical research grants were going to people discovering new ways to grow hair and to keep old men from losing their erections?
Sorry...my ire is showing...I'll tuck it back into the dark recesses of my psyche now...
happy thoughts. happy thoughts. serenity now...
Does "supervillain" count as a trade? If not, rocket science always seemed like fun, if not for the overwhelming amount of math involved. And despite the obvious risks and physical demands involved, it would TOTALLY kick ass to be the guy in the Godzilla suit, even for one of the crappy movies.
I'm right with you, Noodle. Saturday, I'm going to be fitted for a suit to be a pallbearer in my grandfather's impending funeral. He went into Hospice on Tuesday. The cause? Liver cancer. Damned cancer.
Brother R
While I think that there are alot of politics that have gone into trying to discover a cure to cancer, you have to understand that you can't just make one drug that will cure all forms of cancer.Cancer comes in dozens of diffrent forms and I highly doubt that there could be one singular cure for it.
True, but it rubs me the wrong way that there's like, 10 different ways for my grandfather to get a boner, but it doesn't seem like there's any new drugs that actually do anything USEFUL. I mean, we should have at least come up with a cure for the common cold by now. We've known about it for God knows how long.
Brewing your own beer is actually pretty easy.
The difficult part is controlling the temperature because if you don't, the whole damn batch is ruined.
When I was in Australia a friend of mine there brewed his own beer and showed me how.
He had all the necessary equipment and walked me through it step by step.
Dude it's so easy!
Like I said, controlling the temp is the hardest part...you must constantly monitor it.
He brewed his own beer because South Australia (not sure about the rest of the country) has an insane alcohol tax so going to the "bottle shop" can get to be quite expensive.
I might pick up the supplies to start brewing my own grog someday.
It should cost you no more than $50-$100 to get fully started.
Go here for tons more information:
http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/makebeer/makebeer.html
Good luck if you try it!
Post Edited (02-13-04 05:38)
Evil Matt wrote:
> True, but it rubs me the wrong way that there's like, 10
> different ways for my grandfather to get a boner, but it
> doesn't seem like there's any new drugs that actually do
> anything USEFUL. I mean, we should have at least come up with
> a cure for the common cold by now. We've known about it for
> God knows how long.
>
This is something I have griped about for years, also. However, we are met with a few facts that put it at least into a bit of perspective:
1. As stated earlier, there is not ONE CANCER, but many. Each is different and responds to different things.
2. My wife's a doctor, and we have talked about this sort of thing quite a bit. She tells me that cancer is inevitable - we will all get it if we live long enough (meaning if something else does not get us first). The real CAUSE of cancer is age.
3. It is entirely reasonable to assume, based of human medical history, that IF a 'cure' for cancer in the generic sense is found and we prolong the human life span to about 120 years or so, another mortal process will manifest itself. 100 years or so ago, disease and trauma were common causes of death; we have improved in fighting these things and extended our lives into the age where cancer growth is more 'common.' Getting rid of the cancer may bring us into another 'disease' regime we don't really know exists yet.
4. As for curing the common cold, each and every cold you get is caused by a different virus. Like cancer, there is no 'common cold.' All that is common is the symptoms. In fact, when you get a cold, your body DOES develop immunity to THAT particular cold virus. You'll never get it again. But next week, you are exposed to one that is completely different, but the symptoms of infection are the same.
I don't want to start some political discussion here, but in the same vain that you mention 'erectile dysfunction' drugs, I sorta put AIDS research. We are spending BILLIONS of dollars on what is largely a preventable disease. Compared to other communicable diseases like the flu, colds, Hepatits, tuburculosis, Ebola, etc, AIDS is actuallly very hard to get. It is only prevalent in certain high risk social groups, such as the sexually promiscuous and drug users that share needles.
I am not IN ANY WAY saying we should not be doing AIDS research, nor am I even hinting to the thought that the people with AIDS deserve it. All I am saying is that I think the politics of AIDS is driving it out of proportion to the number of people the research will benefit. Alziemer's, Parkinson's, Hodgkins, Leukemia, various cancers, etc, are diseases that MORE PEOPLE get without it being associated with their behavior (again, meaning getting the disease is preventable, not that they deserve it), yet these SEEM to rely more on charitable contributations and AIDS gets all kinds of public money. Maybe it just seems that way.
I lost my Father to cancer several years ago, and the last year of his life was no more comfortable than that of someone with AIDS. We need to not politicize life and death issues (like disease research, for that matter and war, to those that oppose our involvement in Iraq ONLY because a Republican is President) and put that energy into innovation and advancement.
I don't claim to know things to the level of a true tradesman, but when I am interested in something (or need a skill for some project), I learn it by reading and trying it. I have participated in wiring houses, I do all of my own plumbing around the house, I have done my own mechanic work on my vehicles since high school (for the most part ... now available time is more of a factor). My skills in these areas won't win me any awards, but I get the job done.
Welding is something I have done some of, but I am not very good at it. A few years ago I knew a guy who welded something for a guy at work one day, and word spread he knew how to weld. Within a few months, he had quit that job and built himself a three bay welding shop, and does work all over the county. He bought a new 1 ton truck with portable welding gear and does on-site stuff. Pretty cool story, if you ask me.
Electronics is the big thing right now, I think. Again, I tinker as a hobbyist - I've built some fun little circuits, usually related to some other projects. My brother in law did radar work in the Army, and now out of the Army he does contract work for Raytheon. That's pretty cool.
If there is one skill I absolutely DO NOT have that I wish I were better at, it would be drawing. I can do technical drawing with t-squares and stuff, but free hand or sketching I draw at about the level of a 3rd grader. I am not kidding. I have no sense of perspective in my hand-eye coordination. No graphical artistical talent at all.
I hear you, Ulthar. I've done all kinds of household projects - wiring, plumbing, tile, drywall, concrete, decks, ductwork, and a bunch of other things. I've done minor car repairs and bodywork (not pretty, but fixed). I'm also planning on building a new computer. Because I can learn and apply these skills, I have a nicer home than I could otherwise afford, and it's fun. People wonder why I would go to so much trouble. Frankly, I can't understand why they spend the money, and deny themselves the fun, satisfaction and learning.
I looked at the union option in high school. Looks great in theory - one place to apply, good benefits, equal pay everywhere. When you look a little deeper, it's a wonder any of their apprentices even manage to earn a licence, working on and off, and spending most of their practical time fetching coffees for the licenced guys. I'd never go that route.
A lot of non-union companies around, however. All the electricians I know have steady, secure jobs. They'd never work for a union either.
Well put Ulthar.
One of my grandfathers was a butcher, my mom learned a lot about different cuts of meats from that. Unfortunately he died when I was real young, so I couldn't have gotten the benefit of his knowledge. For that and for speaking Hungarian.
I guess I'd like to be able to do more with cars, but now it's all electronics. Plumbing, electrical work, carpentry. All good skills.I wish I had. I do build my own computers, but that's getting tiresome these days.
CARS! I'd give anything to be able to fix a car myself.
I grew up wanting to work on cars. I achieved my goal and was an auto-tech for 15 LONG years. I'm glad I am able to fix most every problem I encounter with my cars but having done that for 15 years has made me hate cars with a passion. I stopped working on cars for a living back in '97 and I don't regret it one bit.
Yeah, but I bet you also don't regret knowing what's wrong and how to fix it when your car has a problem. That skill is probably worth tens of thousands of dollars over the course of a lifetime.
Ahh....ASH....now that would explain why for every bottle/can of grog you buy in Queensland, and I assume the rest of Australia, it says on the label that there is a 5c refund for the deposit of the empty bottle in South Australia.
Eirik,
You are surely correct about that. I hate cars but I also look at the huge money I save by being able to fix my own cars. It also helps when buying cars. I usually buy $500-$700 cars that need some kind of work, fix them for the cost of parts, and then drive them for 2 or 3 years. Saves me lots of money when you consider what payments are for new cars these days.
If you'd like to learn butchering 'on the cheap,' hang out with someone who hunts. I have butchered several deer that I and my friends have killed while hunting. Both hunting and butchering are extremely useful skills to develop.
So if cancer is inevitable, then I can keep smoking? : )
Very well put, by the way.
While I agree that there are several forms of cancer and there is probably no one cure for everything, I wish I could have come up with one for stage 4 breast cancer (the type my sister had - lowest chance for survival).
I've come to realize that while I am happy my sister isn't in pain anymore, it seems like that pain has transferred to each of the people who loved her so much and wish she was still here.
I have decided the only way to fully accept her passing and move forward is to do 2 things:
(1) give blood as often as I can, since only 5% of people who can donate actually do.
(2) participate in the Relay for Life. I plan to walk 24 hours straight in May to help raise money for cancer research.
As for the trade of choice I wish I learned? To be an actor. I have always loved theatre and the stage but my own fears kept me from trying to make a career out of it.
Several trades I would like to learn.
First I would love it if I knew how to fix my car everytime something went wrong with it.I always feel embarrased when I go into the auto shop and find out what was wrong with my car was just a simple fix.
Second I would like to learn ether how to direct a movie or write scripts for a movie.My head is filled with dozens of awsome ideas for movies but I have no way of getting them out.
Lastly I would like to learn martial arts. When ever I watch a martial artists perform I am left in awe by the things they can do. I think its really cool how they can turn there own bodys into a lethal weapon.Also it would greatly help dicapline my mind and body.
Well lets see:
Auto Mechanic because I like the idea of being able to take care of my own car.
Basically any kind of repair work.
I've also thought it would be cool to learn Zen Archery. The idea of hitting a bullseye blindfolded sounds awesome!
But I like making an ass out of myself so I'm pursuing acting(and maybe one day directing). If that doesn't work out, looks like I'll be a clerk at the corner store.